Ever wanted to ride your bicycle through the Pyrenees Mountains? The Chinese countryside? Can’t afford the trip there? With Widerun, virtual reality (VR) can take the place of reality, making training for an event or just wanting to get some exercise more fun. Making use of Facebook’s Oculus headset, their immersive training environment let’s you train in different locales and worlds that could cut down on the boredom and feeling of routine that can arise with working out often.
What is virtual reality?
The term describes an array of applications that are usually associated with immersive, highly visual, 3D environments. Widerun, the first-of-its-kind indoor 3D virtual reality training experience, creates a world, populates it, adds sound and light, and let’s you go for a ride in it. When the weather is bad or traffic is more than you want to deal with, this is an excellent option to have.
What makes Widerun stand out from other products is that it rewards you for how hard you work out. How does that work? According to their website, their VR training system is based on a smart bike roller connected to a VR headset HMD or head mounted display. You plug in your bike, log-in to the Widerun marketplace, choose where you want to go in the Environments section, put on the 3D visor such as the picture above, and ride.
But that’s not all Widerun does to differentiate themselves. Their training system tracks your position and weight, which then is used to let you know how you’re doing. If you want more of a challenge, you’ll get one! Whether riding solo, doing a time trial against other cyclists, this system will challenge and keep you interested and engaged.
By using the top-of-the-line NVidia’s Jetson TK1, Widerun greatly enhances their graphics processing unit (GPU) offering, making the scenery all the more life-like and dynamic.
After setting up the headset, it’s highly recommended that users test it thoroughly. This is an important safety and health issue to take note of. If your eyes hurt or if you get dizzy or nauseous using the technology, you’re not as likely to want to use it again.
Here’s an example of what you may see during a trip with WideRun:
Even then, there might be less than smooth movement when turning your head. You may need to change the settings on the monitor or making the DK2 the primary display. Luckily, there’s a robust forum for games and demos to get assistance.
Italy’s Wedu Technologies SRL, the creators of Widerun, is the brainchild of Alessandro Scipioni, their Chief Executive Officer, who, with many years as a developer, his knowledge in IT solutions, and electronics brought his focus to bear in the realm of virtual reality. With the Tiziano Piccardi’s, Chief Technology Officer, 3D game design knowledge and Riccardo Avanzi’s, Chief Operating Officer, interest in user experience and design, Widerun’s creativity and forward-looking slant is evident.
As of now, they have about a dozen scenes/locales, but they are looking to expand. To do that, they will, wisely, open up their platform to developers to see what they can come up with.
While there are many praises to be heaped upon this training system, some practical questions remain. If you’re riding your bike for miles through wonderful looking terrain, you’re bound to break a sweat. What happens to the headgear? Widerun’s team will need to either come up with something on their own or pair with another company, as hygiene is very important to athletes.
No matter what happens with Widerun, the world of virtual reality and cycling training just got a lot more interesting.